Training block overview - Competitor (Strength) - WK13-18/2025

The main priority for this stream is to help you build a solid foundation of strength. This plan also contains conditioning work to help you maintain your fitness, as well as a weekly session dedicated to skill development. If strength is your biggest limiting factor in competitions and you’re confident in your conditioning, this plan is a good choice for you.

If your main focus is on the Semi-finals, follow the SPP stream instead.

- 5 training sessions (90 minutes to 2 hours), an optional additional base training/Z2 OR active recovery day and a full rest day (on Sundays)

- Weightlifting and strength work spread across five (5) training sessions.

- Two (2) conditioning sessions (sport-specific interval session and a competition workout)

- Weekly skill work spread across the sessions

Each week is organised based on the movements, repetitions and intensity to allow for sufficient recovery for you to work hard in each session.

The main focus in lifting is still on strength development (vs maxing out on weightlifting). Most of the percentages (%) are open ended so you can go heavy on the days when you’re feeling good AND work on your form on the days when you’re not.

Here are the progressions (from WK1-WK6) for the lifts:

Snatch:

- Primer complexes (muscle/power snatch, overhead squat, snatch balance variations)

- “Snakes-n-ladders” (go heavier if you make a lift, drop down if you miss a lift) and Snatch doubles (2s), alt weeks

Clean and jerk:

- Clean and jerk, 3+2+1s (in same session, building each time) and Clean, 3s/2s/1s (progressing from session to session), alt weeks

- Hang power clean, 5 x 5s (building each time), every other week

We are not quite maxing out yet in this training block but building to heavy sets of 3-5 repetitions in the main lifts. This means the focus is still on general strength development (vs peaking for 1RMs) to bring your baseline up.

Here are the progressions (from WK1-WK6) for main lifts in different movement patterns:

Squats:

- Back squat, H3 (3/2/1 RIR) + 2 x 4-6 + AMAP -2/-1/0 and 5 x 5 (alt weeks)

- Front squat, 5 x 3s and Overhead squat, H3 (3/2/1 RIR) + 2-3 x 4-6 + 0-1 x AMAP (alt weeks)

Hinges:

- Romanian deadlift, 3-4 x 8-10 and Deadlift H5/H4/H3 (2 RIR) + back-off sets (alt weeks)

Push:

- Strict press, H3 (3/2/1 RIR) + 2 x 4-6 + AMAP and Seated strict press, 4 x 6 (alt weeks)

- Paused bench press, 4x6/5x5/6x4 (1st 3 weeks) and Bench press, H5/H4/H3 (2 RIR) + back-off sets (2nd 3 weeks)

- DB Bench press (1st 3 weeks) and Incline DB Bench press (2nd 3 weeks), 2-3 x 8-12 + AMAP

- Strict ring dip, 3-4 x 8-12 (1st 3 weeks) and Strict dips, 3-4 x 6-8 (2nd 3 weeks)

Pull:

- Strict wide grip pull ups, AMAPs (1st 3 weeks) and Strict pull ups, 3-4 x 4-6 (2nd 3 weeks)

- Strict ring pull ups, 4 x 6-8 and Strict chin ups, H3 (3/2/1 RIR) + 2 x 4-6 + AMAP -2/-1/0 (alt weeks)

- Barbell bent over row, 3-4 x 8-10 (1st 3 weeks) and Pendlay row, 3-4 x 6-8 (2nd 3 weeks)

- Incline DB row (1st 3 weeks) and Single arm DB row (2nd 3 weeks), 2-3 x 8-12 + AMAP

You’ll also have a variety of assistance work to keep your body balanced, strengthen weak points, and of course, some bodybuilding.

The central theme for the conditioning sessions in this training block is to develop your recovery ability within workouts by improving your lactate utilisation/clearance. We’ll rotate different intervals from below (1 comp workout + 1 interval session/week) through the block.

- The weekly competition workouts are an opportunity to practice pushing yourself, developing your movement capacity under fatigue and refining your pacing under intensity.

One of these weekly:

- Two (2) to eight (8) minute mixed-modal high-intensity intervals, with active rest periods challenging your body to produce and clear lactate in a sports-specific context.

- AMRAP/EMOM 40s for longer efforts at threshold with short rest intervals to help your body become more efficient at managing lactate at sustained workloads.

Optional session:

- Aerobic base session of longer duration, lower to moderate intensity that improve mitochondrial density and capillarization, which indirectly supports lactate clearance.

It’s important to note that each of these sessions should be done at prescribed intensities to stimulate the intended adaptations properly.

Learning and practising “Intensity control” (matching intensity/pace to session intent) is a key skill that will elevate the level of your training beyond merely “doing workouts.” It will allow you to make the most out of each session and ensure sufficient recovery from your training to continue to put in high-quality work.

The skill work in this block is focused on the more challenging gymnastics movements such as muscle ups, rope climbs, handstand walks, single-leg squats, etc. We’ll work on efficiency, speed and capacity across the block.

Overall there is less skill in this plan then the other ones.

The quality of your training is the quality of your repetitions. Aim to make every training session the best it can be. Focus on what’s within your control:

- Giving your best effort (this is not merely pushing as hard as you can each time but reflecting on the intent of the training session, then applying yourself to it).

- Doing the work (and not skipping skill pieces or other parts of training)

- Holding yourself to movement standards (establishing solid foundations for all upcoming training)

- Warming up / cooling down

- Sleeping well

- Fuelling sufficiently

The most important principles for strength training are specificity (you must do what you want to get better at), and progressive overload (training has to be hard enough (in frequency, volume, intensity) to create a need for adaptation. This also means training has to get harder over time.

The main driver for adaptation (strength, work capacity) in this training block will be a mix of intensity and volume in main lifts. For example, we’ll have both “top sets” (such as H5) at different RIR (Reps In Reserve) prescriptions, as well as AMAP (As Many As Possible) sets to cover a broad spectrum of stimuli to build your strength.

Your main job is to put in quality work from one session to the next ( = avoid pushing so hard in a single session that you won’t be able to complete another one). That being said, we want the sets to be challenging enough (follow the RIR guidance) to be considered working sets.

Aim to build each week from the last one, whether by increasing the reps or weights (depending on the progression). Focus on accumulating high-quality (do the lifts with good form) repetitions to lay a solid technical foundation for future training.

As your goal is to get stronger and put on some muscle mass, it’s a good idea to be in a slight caloric surplus in this training block. You’ll want to show up well-fuelled for the lifting as even modest glycogen (stored sugar) depletion can lead to reduced session quality (which we don’t want).

A good sign that you could eat more to fuel your training is that you feel hungry. If you’re not sure, a few rough reference points for daily intake (if you’re into macros) could be:

Protein - 2.2g per kg (1 gram per lb) BW (bodyweight)

Fat - 25-30% of daily calories or 1g per kg (1g per lb) BW

Carbs - Remaining calories or 4+g per kg (1.8+g per lb) BW

Calories - 22 x BW in kg (or 10 x BW in lbs) x (1.5 to 1.8 as “activity multiplier”) + 100 to 200 cals (for surplus)

Remember that if you don’t eat enough, you won’t recover and get the results you want. If you need guidance, reach out to us.

The most important thing for your recovery will be to get enough (7.5-9 hours) sleep regularly. Your training (and results) will be better if you can sleep more. Aim to be in bed before 11pm latest, and sleep in a cool, dark, quiet room. If you can, get out for a short (10-minute) walk soon after sunrise (before 10am is fine) and again around sunset. This will help set your circadian rhythm so it’ll be easier to go to bed early.

All other recovery modalities will come second to this. Implementing a 10 to 30-minute daily mobility routine, split between morning, training and evening will also very likely pay off, both short and long-term.